Giroux signs on to stay with Flyers; Gilbert hits bricks with Phantoms

* Dot all the i's and cross all the t's on a new three-year contract extension for Claude Giroux.

* Fly to Glens Falls, N.Y., to fire Greg Gilbert as coach of the Adirondack Phantoms of the AHL.

* Meet with those Phantoms players and place much of the blame for the firing at their feet - after all, they've lost a franchise record nine straight games and counting.

* Fly to Toronto for the NHL general managers' meetings where he will, among other things, try and find a taker for Patrick Maroon, the exiled leading scorer of the Phantoms whose off-ice attitude and indiscretions forced Holmgren to basically kick him off the team.

How's that for a manic Monday?

Let's start with the good news - Giroux, 22, the Flyers' most dynamic player through this season's first 15 games, inked a three-year extension to his current contract that runs through the 2012-13 season.

The total money on the extension is $11.25 million, or a cap hit (average salary) of $3.75 million per year.

Giroux, 22, will make $2.75 million next season, $3.5 million in 2011-12 and $5 million in 2012-13.

"I'm really excited to be with the Flyers organization for three more years," Giroux said. "We are going to a very good team, hopefully for many years. This is a good group of guys and I am having a lot of fun right now."

Giroux will still be a restricted free agent at the conclusion of the extension, meaning the Flyers will still have control of his rights.

"We started talking at the start of the season," Giroux said. "I had a couple of options to look over and me and my (agent) talked about it and felt this was the best fit for me. We have a lot of good players on this team and I'm just trying to fit in. Hopefully, we can continue with our success."

A first-round pick of the Flyers in 2006 (22nd overall), Giroux leads the team in scoring with seven goals and seven assists for 14 points through 15 games. His three shorthanded goals this season are tops in the NHL. The Flyers got Giroux at somewhat of a bargain price for such a highly skilled player as his cap hit for the next three seasons is lower than that of six of his teammates.

"It's important to get the guys we consider key parts of the team to get done on a longer-term deal," Holmgren said. "He's been a good player for us and we look for him to become a better player over the next couple years.

"This is something that (now that it's over) Claude can just concentrate on playing and we don't have to worry about it, either, for a few years. (He) is a good two-way player for us right now."

Conversely, guys that haven't been good players for the organization have been the Adirondack Phantoms, the Flyers' AHL affiliate. They've lost nine games in a row and had their leading scorer kicked off the team.

The latest shoe to drop there was the firing of Gilbert Monday.

"It's a hard thing to do," Holmgren said. "We have a very young team there in terms of years of pro hockey (experience). It just got to the point where I believe we needed to do something to stop the bleeding. Greg is a good coach. He's a good guy. I feel terrible about doing this, but when you lose nine games in a row you need to do something."

Replacing Gilbert on an interim basis is Flyers assistant general manager John Paddock, who has coached the Phantoms before as well as a few other teams in his 15-plus years behind the bench of AHL teams.

"We're going to give it a few months to see how it goes," Holmgren said of how long Paddock will remain in place. "I asked John what he thought about this idea. He's a company guy and a good guy. We want to make things better down there. You'd like to develop them in the (proper) atmosphere."

Riley Cote will remain an assistant coach but Joe Patterson will also be brought in as a full-time assistant. Patterson is a likely successor to Paddock as he was a finalist for the Phantoms job when it was given to Gilbert prior to last season.

Paddock, 56, last coached the Phantoms in 2008-09, their final season in Philadelphia.

He has won five Calder Cups. Two as a player (Maine, 1978 and 1979) and three as a coach (Maine in 1984; Hershey in 1988 and Hartford in 2000). Three of those championships came when his team was the primary affiliate of the Flyers.

As for Maroon, he's been, well, marooned in New Hampshire, working out with a strength and conditioning coach waiting for the Flyers to finally trade him or loan him out to another AHL club.

There is a belief that Holmgren will rid himself of that headache as soon as today when he gathers with the other 29 GMs in the league in Toronto. Reports have cited Tampa Bay as a frontrunner but a team source indicated that at least a dozen teams are interested in acquiring Maroon.

"I don't think the Patrick Maroon thing has anything to do with the Greg Gilbert thing," Holmgren said. "They're not the same. It's just a (nasty) business sometimes. I certainly feel as responsible as anybody for the way the Phantoms are playing right now."